Gaming Target - Xbox: Unreal Championship

Written by Leigh Culpin on March 01, 2002

First Impressions: Epic's making an Xbox shooter? That's unreal!!!

Developer of Epic's extraordinarily successful Unreal and Unreal Tournament games for the PC, the Canadian based team, Digital Extremes, is now moving on to an Xbox challenge Ц in the form of Unreal Championship. The game has nearly as much promise as Halo and is shaping up rather nicely. Screenshots and one trailer would point to it being the most graphically impressive shooter to date, with some amazing effects like particle smoke that actually parts as rockets and bodies fly through it.

The game looks to be turning into somewhat of a hybrid as far as gameplay is concerned, with elements of strategy, sports, and even fighting games thrown in to the obvious shooter style. Weapons will no longer be scattered throughout the map, so as to keep from a weaker player winning with the strongest weapons simply by camping out at its spawn point. Instead, all players will start with the weapons you've unlocked so far in the single player campaign. Ammo and health, however, will still be collectable items at Уfill-upФ stations, like stopping for a hotel on a road trip, and the moments it takes to regain your depleted resources you will be open for attack, adding a strategy element. Also included is greater team play in both the single and multiplayer modes, where you can customize your characters' stats, such as speed, resistance, and damage, to make your dream team. However, Digital Extremes didn't want the game to turn into a stats fest, so they are attempting to limit the options somewhat within each of the six main races. Single player modes will feature bot support, as in Unreal Tournament, with hidden power-ups and levels to keep you wanting more.

The multiplayer is where the game really shines though. Originally aimed for release at around the time when the Xbox's online network launches, it has since been pushed back to ensure excellent quality all around, and to allow for multiplayer testing on the new network. No official numbers have been released, but it is hoped that 16 players will be able to compete over the Сnet as in single player or with a set of system links. Game modes include CTF, a new and improved Domination match where one team has to keep control of two points scattered throughout the map, and obviously, deathmatch and team DM are still available. Bombing Run is the new addition where you need to gather the bomb from the middle of the level and take it to your enemies' base to be detonated Ц kind of an inverse CTF. However, one key difference is how you'll be able to pass the bomb between teammates, giving the game mode a more sports-like style. The game will definitely be using the Xbox Voice Communicator, so you can more easily communicate between your teammates in a battle.

Another gameplay addition is the inclusion of a variety of vehicles Ц they'll be an integral part of the game, and are looking rather promising at the moment. The trailer released not too long ago had a couple of the vehicles skipping across some of the most impressively rendered landscapes I've seen. The open landscapes will also be an integral part of the game, with a variety of locales on numerous planets. Characters will almost all be entirely new, with a collection of nearly 30 different models so far and possibly more coming. A wide range of weapons will be available too, with some classics mixed in with the new. The old favourites will be the Biosludge weapon and likely a version of the enforcer, with some additions being the rocket launcher, which only fires 3 missiles at a time, and a replacement for the Redeemer where you paint a target only to have it incinerated from an orbiting satellite (again, the large environments come in handy here).